Three days and three meetings. This is how long it has taken the PP and Vox in the Valencian Community to close an agreement for the distribution of the areas of power of the executive of Carlos Mazón and the policies to be developed during the next legislature. A pact that gives Vox the first vice presidency, which will be managed by the former bullfighter Vicente Barrera, who will also be responsible for Culture, in a bilingual autonomy. In addition, the ministries of Justice and Agriculture are delivered to the formation of Santiago Abascal.
The PP will have control of the rest of the so-called strategic portfolios, from the Treasury, Health or Education, which means control of more than 92% of the Valencian budget, which means de facto that Carlos Mazón will have executive control of the new Valencian Council. One of the biggest frictions between the two formations during the rapid negotiations has been the Education area that Vox wanted.
But the agreement integrates fifty points of government action, of active policies, which confirm that Vox has managed to impose its cultural and symbolic narrative on the PP. In its content it can be seen that there are no references to gender violence, equality or feminism and yes to “domestic violence”. The willingness of both parties to repeal all measures regarding historical memory is exposed: “the regulations that attack reconciliation in historical affairs will be repealed”. In addition, there is no reference to climate change, which means giving in to Vox’s denier positions in a context like the current climate emergency.
Measures against “illegal immigration” and the creation of an office against “occupation” of homes are announced despite the few powers of the Generalitat Valenciana in these matters. And the will to “eliminate” the aid or subsidies to the entities or associations that promote the “Països Catalans” is shown, in addition to the creation of a Law of Identity Signs whose objective is to grant non-regulatory entities the ability to issue titles from Valencian.
Carlos Mazón had announced during the electoral campaign that he would not accept some of the policies now agreed to in writing by Vox, such as those related to gender issues or the denialist vision of climate change. But everything indicates that the Valencian PP has had to pay this price in exchange for Abascal agreeing to sacrifice his candidate for Valencia, Carlos Flores, convicted of sexist violence; Flores was designated number one on the list of the green formation by Valencia that same day so as not to become part of the future Valencian executive.
The pact known yesterday has generated concern in Genoa, where the national leadership has surprised the content of an agreement and the distribution of areas of power because it can convey a negative message to the PP a few weeks after 23-J, according to sources from this game. Last Tuesday, Feijóo already had to defend the need to agree with Vox to guarantee governability in Valencia, given that the PP did not have enough seats to achieve the presidency.
But the distribution of power in an autonomy of the weight of the Valencian Community and some of the agreed policies generate a powerful message to the rest of Spain about what a future relationship between PP and Vox in the Government can be like.
Apart from the cultural and symbolic terrain, the PP has managed to have its star measures included in the agreement, such as a drastic reduction in taxes or the freedom of choice of school for parents. A freedom that opens the door to put the parental pin.
However, the policies defended by Mazón during the campaign yesterday were subjected to the impact of seeing this new roadmap in an autonomy such as Valencia, a reference, until not long ago, for advances in social policies with pioneering measures against violence. of gender or the fight against climate change and even a trans law of its own. It will be necessary to see if what happened in Valencia conditions, for better or for worse, the conversations between the PP and Vox in the pacts for other autonomies. At the moment, Valencia is already marking a path of what can happen in the future in La Moncloa
